Name: Too Proud to Beg
Channel: David Rovics
Description: "Too Proud to Beg" is a song by David Rovics. I wrote the song during the heat wave in the summer of '95, about a man who died at that time while he was living in his car.

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I wrote the song during the heat wave in the summer of '95, about a man who died at that time while he was living in his car.

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David Rovics

"If the great Phil Ochs were to rise from the dead today, he would probably be hailed as the new David Rovics." Andy Kershaw, BBC

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Folk

Charts

Peak #239

Peak in subgenre #27

Author

David Rovics

Rights

Uploaded

June 14, 2005

Track Files

MP3

MP3 7.8 MB • 128 kbps • 0:00

Story behind the song

This song is based on an article I read in the New York Times one day, hanging out with my dear friend Chrysler at a blueberry stand in northwestern Connecticut. I wrote the song during the heat wave in the summer of '95, about a man who died at that time while he was living in his car.

Lyrics

He walked the streets of this neighborhood
Long as anyone knew
Used to work in construction
But those days are long through
On this hot summer morning
Everyone lowered their heads
The heat wave is over
And Pat O'Leary's dead

(chorus)
He was too old to work
And he had a bum leg
But they cut him off welfare
And he was too proud to beg

For a roll and some coffee
He'd be up at sunrise
With a joke for the vendors
And a smile in his eyes
With the other old-timers
He'd wile the years
With a wink for the children
And a listening ear

(chorus)

His neice and his sister
They asked him to stay
But he liked the old neighborhood
He said "it's better this way"
He said "soon I'll make it
"To sixty-five
"And I got my old Buick
"Til that day arrives"

(chorus)

----

Created December, 1998
Copyright David Rovics 1998, all rights reserved

On 16 Playlists

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